It will be one season and done for the western starring Gillian Anderson.
Looks like we may never know who survived the fire that erupted during the Season 1 cliffhanger finale of The Abandons. Netflix announced Wednesday that the western drama starring Gillian Anderson (pictured above), Lena Headey, and Michael Greyeyes will not return for a second season.
News of the cancellation did not really come as a surprise to those of us who keep a close watch on the TV numbers game. According to the showbiz site Deadline, The Abandons “spent 2 weeks in the Netflix Top 10 for English series, ranking as No. 4 in its first two weeks of release with 7.4M and 7.6M views, respectively.” Trouble is, “It quickly faded after that, dropping off the Top 10 and mustering 4.8M more views in the following 17 days.”
Even before it premiered December 4, “The big-budget series, which launched to mixed reviews, also underwent a behind the scenes shake-up, with creator Kurt Sutter leaving before the end of production.”
As IndieWire writer Ben Travers noted in his mostly negative critique, Sutter jumped ship “with just three weeks left in production amid reports that his initial 100-minute pilot caused Netflix executives to question the show’s direction. Reshoots were ordered, the original 10 episodes were cut down to seven, and the resulting first season is so hollowed out (four of the seven episodes clock in under 39 minutes), it’s difficult to tell what greater ambition the series might’ve once sought.”
For the benefit of those who tuned in late, here’s the official Netflix logline for The Abandons: “Set in the Washington Territory in 1854, the series follows the matriarchs of two very different families: the Van Nesses, a dynasty of wealth and privilege led by Anderson’s Constance, and the Abandons, a found family of orphans and outcasts fiercely protected by Headey’s Fiona Nolan.
“The families find their fates linked by two crimes, an awful secret, star-crossed love, and a piece of land over a silver lode. Their collision in a place just beyond the reach of justice echoes the perpetual American struggle between the haves and have-nots.”
C&I reader favorite Michael Greyeyes co-starred as Jack Cree, an enforcer and loyal member of the powerful Van Ness family, working for Constance Van Ness to expand her mining interests in Jasper Hollow.
It should be noted that, despite the ratings decline and mixed reviews, The Abandons has been nominated in two categories of the 20026 C&I Movie & TV Awards, Best Series and Best Actress (Anderson and Headey). You can cast your ballot for the awards until March 4.
And who knows? Maybe Netflix will take a cue from what HBO eventually did with Deadwood, and produce a movie spin-off to provide answers for our, ahem, burning questions.
